Sheriff feels heat for stand on audit

Budget overrun also issue in Kane

November 14, 2002|By William Presecky, Tribune staff reporter.

Clashes between Kane County Sheriff Kenneth Ramsey and the County Board flared again Wednesday when questions were raised about a projected $700,000 budget overrun in his department and his apparent refusal to cooperate fully in an audit of his office's credit cards.

The latest skirmishes over his management of the department came slightly more than a week after Ramsey overwhelmingly won re-election to an unprecedented third consecutive term.

The county auditor's office has been reviewing the use of county-issued credit cards. Although "no significant instances of inappropriate expenses" have been found, according to the office, completion of the review of the Sheriff's Department's 34 cards has been delayed.

One reason, Deputy Auditor John Harahan told the County Board's Finance Committee, is the refusal by two non-profit associations in which Ramsey has been an officer to turn over credit card information to the county.

"According to the executive directors of both organizations, Sheriff Ramsey would not allow disclosure of his meeting attendance and travel reimbursements by these organizations," Harahan said. "Our audit objective was to determine whether the sheriff was reimbursed by the county and another organization for travel to the same meeting."

Ramsey, who was not at the committee meeting, said Wednesday it is the policy of both private, non-profit groups, the Illinois Sheriffs' Association and FBI National Academy Association, not to release the information requested by Harahan.

Ramsey said he declined offers by officials of both groups to make an exception in his case.

"I just didn't want them to make exceptions on my account or expose them or set precedents that they're not comfortable with," Ramsey said.

He said he is reluctantly requesting both organizations to make a limited amount of information available.

"If somebody thinks I did something wrong, prove it," he said. "I should not have to prove that I did not do anything wrong."

He denied having intentionally submitted the same expenses to the county and associations.

Finance Committee Chairman John Hoscheit (R-St. Charles) asked Harahan to resubmit his request for the information and seek a written response from both associations.

Harahan said the documentation provided in the credit card files "is oftentimes insufficient and is in need of improvement. It is premature to provide a final opinion until all outstanding items are resolved."

The sheriff's office credit card files for 2000 through September 2002 are being reviewed. There were 1,322 charges with total expenditures of $149,473 during the period, Harahan said.

The committee also is singling out the sheriff's office for scrutiny because of a projected $700,000 budget overrun for the fiscal year that ends Nov. 30.

The anticipated overrun prompted the committee to balk Wednesday at including Ramsey's office in the recommended reinstatement of as much as half of the 5.9 percent in cuts made in the personnel budgets of most county offices and departments for next year.

Given the overrun, Hoscheit said he "thought it was inappropriate" to recommend automatically adding money back into Ramsey's 2003 personnel budget.

Ramsey attributed the cost overruns largely to salary increases approved by the County Board through labor agreements negotiated with various employee bargaining units within his office.

Hoscheit said Ramsey is not being blamed for the added costs associated with the increasing number of inmates in the Kane County Jail.

"As far as [the sheriff's] own personnel budget, however, he does have control over that," Hoscheit said. "If there aren't enough dollars to cover his desires and level of funding, he needs to cut back on staff. He has consistently refused to do that and the result is every year he has gone over budget."